2006

11th December 2006

12:00 AM — Gay campaigners are warning that there may be fiercer religious opposition to pro-LGBT laws in the future amid reports that liberal bishops who support homosexual priests will be barred from certain churches and refused funds.The Sunday Telegraph reported that the rift over gay clergy in the Church of England has got to the stage where liberal dioceses are wishing to break away from the denomination and create their own panel.

12:00 AM — PinkNews.co.uk ExclusiveGay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has described Iran's plans to host a conference on Holocaust denial this week as an "incredible insult to all minorities who suffered under Nazism."Since coming to power in 2005, Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has insisted that the Holocaust is a Zionist conspiracy, the event this week invites so called 'experts' to debate whether the event happened.

12:00 AM — Left wing members of Italy's ruling coalition have criticised the Vatican for opposing plans to allow gay couples in Padua to register their 'family.'Last week, Padua city council, outraged the Vatican by allowing gay and lesbian couples to register their 'family.' in a decision which also applies to unmarried heterosexual couples.

12:00 AM — Gay campaigners are calling on the US to repeal its ban on openly gay military recruits after a report on the Iraq War highlighted the importance of language experts, some of whom have been sacked for being gay.Warning that "all of our efforts in Iraq, military and civilian, are handicapped by Americans' lack of language and cultural understanding," the Iraq Study Group, a panel of ten bi-partisan experts convened to examine military strategy in the war in Iraq, emphasised in a report last week the importance of recruiting and retaining language experts.

12:00 AM — Outgames is in trouble again, but this time the deficit is not just affecting government investors, now celebrity backers are coming forth and are asking for the money they are owed from the financially disastrous event.The Montreal Outgames filed for bankruptcy protection this week, giving it a 30-day breathing period to try to work out a deal with those owed outstanding debts.

12:00 AM — The leader of Glasgow City Council, Stephen Purcell, has announced hat he has split with his wife and he is gay.It comes after increased speculation regarding his private life.One of Mr Purcell's close friend's, Jim Tait, told the Daily Record: "The reason he is speaking about this now is to put an end to the rumours which were circulating.

12:00 AM — Conservative Vice-Chairman Margot James has been selected to run for a key marginal seat at the next General Election.Ms James, the party's first openly lesbian female candidate at the last election will fight Labour MP Lynda Waltho for the Black Country constituency of Stourbridge, a key Conservative target.

12:00 AM — Edinburgh University has reached deadlock in an argument with its Christian Union over a course which appears to promote homophobia.The University this week repealed a ban of its Christian Union after being threatened with legal action, but now the society is refusing to abide by the new terms.

12:00 AM — Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith has come close to embarrassing the party's attempts at modernisation after appearing to suggest that gay couples cannot bring up children.Launching a report on the importance of marriage and family to society, Mr Duncan Smith said gay couples were "irrelevant" to the work.

8th December 2006

12:00 AM — The UK's national youth council has called on politicians of all parties to denounce publicly the attitude of the Polish government towards LGBT people.The British Youth Council, a coalition of over 150 youth organisations, including GirlGuiding UK and the NUS, issued a statement today highlighting the multiple incidents of discrimination and homophobia involving high-ranking Polish government officials and politicians.

12:00 AM — PinkNews.co.uk ExclusiveWelsh singing legend Bonnie Tyler is planning a return to the UK charts next month with a new version of Total Eclipse of the Heart, but as she explains to PinkNews.co.uk, she has never been away from the music scene.Love is love, Bonnie Tyler declares when asked on her view on gay equality. Tyler's discography reads like a biopic of the last 30 years of gay life; heartbreak, tension, and striving against all odds.

12:00 AM — The New York City Board of Health voted unanimously this week against a measure to allow transgender people to amend their birth certificates without requiring that they undergo sex reassignment surgery.Transgender advocates who worked with the Board of Health to propose these policy changes have voiced their surprise and disappointment about the vote

12:00 AM — "Everybody sins. No sin is greater or different than the other. To each his own. If it don't bother Jennifer, then Jennifer don't mind. I don't really even think about it because I don't believe in judging people for what they do."Yes folks, you read it. Unfortunately, a reporter from the Dallas Voice quoted everybody's favourite Dreamgirl Jennifer Hudson (yeah, you heard that Beyonce) saying homosexuality is a sin when he asked the budding starlet where she stood on gay marriage.

12:00 AM — Football fans attending the London derby between Arsenal and Chelsea this Sunday will be searched for homophobic materials amid reports that sections of the Gunners' crowd had planned to carry inflatable mobile phones in reference to tabloid allegations about former Arsenal defender Ashley Cole's sexuality.Sections of the travelling Arsenal fans are reportedly being encouraged by supporter's website Arsenal World to take their revenge by printing fake banknotes with the defender superimposed as the Queen, and by carrying blow-up mobile phones in reference to tabloid rumours about a gay orgy involving the player.

12:00 AM — Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly will hold a debate on a motion from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to repeal Sexual Orientation Laws until later next year rather than the scheduled date of January 2007.DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson has called for a debate asking for the law to be delayed by the Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain, as in the rest of the UK, for further consultation, claiming the regulations will inhibit religious rights.

12:00 AM — Ruth Kelly and Peter Hain are at loggerheads over the introduction of new rules barring discrimination against LGBT people.Regulations making it illegal to refuse goods or services on the grounds of sexual orientation are being introduced in Northern Ireland before England and come into force on January 1st.As the Northern Ireland Assembly is suspended, decisions about the province are taken by the Secretary of State, Peter Hain.

12:00 AM — PinkNews.co.uk ExclusiveThe Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has launched an investigation into an advert from Christian groups in The Times newspaper last month which described new gay equality laws as an attack on "conscience."It called on the government to include an opt out in the new Sexual Orientation Regulations.

12:00 AM — The Conservative Prime Minister of Canada has conceded defeat over his plans to re-open the debate over gay marriage.In July 2005, under the previous Liberal administration, Canada became the fourth country to allow gay and lesbian couples to get married.During the 2006 election campaign, the Conservatives had pledged to re-open the debate about the issue.

12:00 AM — Since the clock stuck midnight on Tuesday 5 December 2006 the mainstream press has been desperately scraping the barrel searching for the first gay couple in a civil partnership to divorce.The PinkNews.co.uk phones were jammed with researchers, and some more high profile broadsheets coyly asking, "Do you know any civil partners getting a divorce now that it's been a year since the legislation?"

12:00 AM — A law allowing gay couples in Scotland to adopt passed yesterday, overcoming religious opposition and a last minute attempt to amend it.Despite calls from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland to oppose the bill, MSPs backed the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Bill by 101 votes to six.The bill aims to counter a significant reduction in families available for vulnerable children by allowing gay and unmarried couples to adopt.

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